Barbara Beno, President, Accrediting Commission for Community
and Junior Colleges
Pamela K. Shay, Franklin University
Sharyl Thompson, American College of Education
James Glapa-Grossklag, Dean, College of the Canyons Susan Clifford, VP of Commission Operations, ACCJC
Jack Pond, VP of Team Operations and Communication, ACCJC Krista Johns, VP for Policy and Research, ACCJC
Patricia James, Dean, Mt. San Jacinto College Moderator: Micah Orloff, Director, @ONE
To provide member institutions with information
about federal regulations, accreditation quality standards and reviews, and emerging issues of concern in Distance Education
Let institutions know what accreditors are doing to
assess quality
Stimulate institutional efforts to meet new federal
regulatory requirements and associated deadlines
National and Federal Interest in Growth
Significant increases in numbers of institutions
offering DE
Increases in programs offered via DE
Growth in student enrollments in DE
2008 regulations reduced the limits on federal aid
for students enrolled in Distance Education
Associated Quality Issues in Federal
Regulations
Integrity: Student Authentication
Accreditation: Quality reviews, assurances
Financial Aid Fraud: Preventing or minimizing fraud
The Recognized Utility of Distance Education
Providing “access” to students who would otherwise not have it
Non-traditional students, geographically remote students Students who travel for work, or are posted away from home,
such as military students, others with such jobs
Student convenience – taking classes when they can “get to
the computer”
Presumed efficiency of DE classes – an electronic system can be scaled up, or replicated, at minimal costs
Addressing pedagogical issues and student learning diversity
Enrollments – institutions can get more students w/o buildings
Federal and National Concerns
A few cases of significant institutional growth and
transformation triggered Congressional concerns with exploitation of institutions, students
Growing amount of federal student aid funds,
proportion going to private institutions and for profit institutions offering DE
Financial aid fraud for which Distance Education
may be particularly suited
Growing number of degree mills that operate as
“distance only” institutions leading to problems for transfer institutions, employers
Growth in enrollments, programs
129/134 of member institutions offer Distance Education
Enrollments range from 12 to 6749
Quality
DE programs must meet all accreditation standards for quality
Planning for growth in Distance Education (scaling up) has not always occurred
Student outcome differentials between DE and face to face
Substantive Change Approval process not
always followed, ACCJC records incomplete 6
Detailed information about the new federal
regulations and your institutional responsibility
Detailed information about what the ACCJC will
be expecting of your institution when it undergoes review
Some interesting examples of issues writ large A chance for questions and discussion with some
of the experts we’ve asked to participate in the webinar
Enjoy and Learn!
Dr. Pamela K Shay, DBA
Vice President for Accreditation & Institutional
Effectiveness
Franklin University - non-profit, private institution Online & onsite academic offerings
Students in 48-50 states at any point in time
Sharyl Thompson, MS
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Compliance American College of Education – for-profit, online
institution
Share our combined years of experience in
managing state authorizations for two different types of institutions
Share best practices of the management of
state authorization processes
Provide insights and experience on
approaches to successfully navigate the state authorization environment
Recent Activity
District court “vacating” portion of regs; DOE appeal
Result
Confusion and degree of panic for institutions
States
Unaware of institutions operating in their jurisdiction
Institutions
Many unaware they are regulated
Federal government published new regulations
Misconception that authorization is required
only for distance education
There are a number of triggers, including but
not limited to:
o Students residing in a state o Faculty residing in a state o Recruiting and advertising o Testing sites
o Internships, practica, or clinicals o Branch campuses located in a state
Start with official regulations
◦ Multiple resources are now available, but the
foundation is what the regulations say
◦ Regulations are not always clear and are subject to
interpretation
If, where, and how to seek authorization
depends on several factors including:
◦ Type of institution ◦ Delivery formats
◦ Types of activities conducted within states’ borders
Understand the states’ terminology
Adjust your terminology to match the states’
Exemption provisions Physical presence To operate Educational services Agent Higher education institution
Have multiple people providing information Need one overall “manager”
Manager A B C • Detail oriented • Multi-tasker • Strong project management skills • Typing and formatting
skills • Strong understanding of entire institution • Connected with people across institution • Condenses large volume of info into useable documents/ sections • Strategic perspective • Facilitates decision making regarding gray areas • Participates in risk analysis
Need information from all areas of the
institution, including (not exhaustive list):
Marketing Recruiting Enrollment & Admissions
Finance Catalog Institutional Reporting
Library & Student Services Faculty • Credentials • Hiring • Development Curriculum • Development • Assessment
Develop relationships with state regulators First review regulations and requirements,
then approach with specific questions
Understand regulators’ work load and
perspective (consumer protection and enforcement of regulations)
Attend regulatory meetings and conferences
(federal, state, agency)
Volunteer to serve on state/national task
forces
Represent your institution at meetings and
conferences (WCET, CHEA, AIUCO, NASASPS)
Number of students in a state
Activities institution wants/needs to conduct
(internships, recruiting, advertising)
Fees for initial approvals, renewals, bonds, etc. Cost of not serving existing students
Cost of monitoring and maintaining
authorizations
These are strategic decisions and involve risk
Ongoing authorization work
◦ Reauthorizations
◦ New program approvals
◦ Enrollment/revenue reporting ◦ Surety bond updates
◦ Agent licenses and renewals
Ongoing work for exemptions
◦ Fees, enrollment reporting, reapplication
Contact Information
Pamela K. Shay Sharyl Thompson
Vice President for Accreditation & Institutional Effectiveness Franklin University 201 S. Grant Ave. Columbus, OH 43215 shayp@franklin.edu 614.947.6135
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Compliance
American College of Education 101 W. Ohio Street, Suite 1200 Indianapolis, IN 46228
sharyl.thompson@ace.edu
The above cartoon by Peter Steiner has been reproduced from page 61 of July 5, 1993 issue of The New Yorker, (Vol.69 (LXIX) no. 20)only for academic discussion, evaluation, research and complies with the copyright law of the United States as defined and stipulated under Title 17 U. S. Code.
Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA)
Signed August 2008
Updated Higher Education Act
HEOA requires accreditors to require
institutions “to have processes through which the institution establishes that the student
who registers in a distance education course or program is the same student who
participates in and completes the program and receives the academic credit”
1) Require all online classes to use the college LMS 2) Require all DE classes have to require one
proctored assessment
3) Add statement to LMS log-in page:
Through the entry of my username and password I affirm that I am the student who enrolled in this course. Furthermore, I affirm that I understand and agree to follow the regulations regarding academic integrity and the use of student data as described in the Student Conduct Code that governs student rights and responsibilities.
Failure to abide by the regulations may result in disciplinary action up to expulsion from the college.
4) Add academic integrity component to DE training for faculty
LDA is the date an institution is expected to
use to calculate the amount of Title IV refund when a student withdraws from a program.
The later the LDA the less refund.
The Tip of The Iceberg
•Michael Goldstein, Dow Lohnes PLLC
The Problem:
Recently, without the issuance of regulations or formal guidance, ED has taken the position that documenting the student’s LDA in an
“academically related activity” requires more than attendance in the student’s electronic classroom.
Under both the current and proposed Dept. of Ed. rules, if an institution is not required and does not voluntarily take attendance, the
institution may either use the mid‐point of the financial aid payment period as the
effective withdrawal date or it may document the student’s actual LDA as determined by his or her last known “academically related
Traditionally we calculate LDA in online
programs based on the last day a student entered a secure classroom site.
Dept. of Ed. has taken the position that
documenting the student’s LDA in an
“academically related activity” requires more than attendance in the student’s electronic classroom.
Guidance included with the new regulations
requires evidence of “academic engagement” for online enrollments…
…versus requiring evidence of “physical
presence in the classroom for the face to face programs.
Academic Engagement Defined:
Dept. of Ed. has begun retroactively
enforcing this heightened standard that requires documentation of “regular and
substantive interaction between the students and faculty,” through discussion board posts, completed assignments, or electronic
•Dept. of Ed. Admits that there is NO prior general guidance supporting it’s position
•However, it has retroactively applied the new standard to prior year’s program practices.
•The Ultimate Bad outcome: An audit that finds that your program lacked sufficient engagement
and should be classified as “correspondence study” which could make them ineligible to participate in the Title IV Programs.
Michael Goldstein, Dow Lohnes PLLC Friday, October 28, 2011
Make it clear to online teaching faculty that CMS
statistics are not enough.
Regular Effective Contact is defined and enforced LDA policy is created and enforced that includes
academic engagement (activity).
Instructors save work of the student dropped and
document when the activity stopped.
Institutional definition of Excessive Absences
When a student has not participated in
discussions or other forms of
communication and/or has not submitted assignments for two consecutive weeks, the instructor will attempt to contact the student and notify them that they have 5 days to
complete the missing work or be dropped from the course.
The instructor will document the student’s
Is your program Distance Education or Correspondence Education?
• Instruction delivered to students who are
separated from the instructor
• Regular and substantive interaction
between students and the instructor
• May use Internet, one- or two-way
transmissions, audio/video conferencing, DVDs or CD-ROMs
• Instructional material provided by mail or
electronic transmission (including
examinations) to students who are separated from the instructor
• Limited interaction between student and
instructor and primarily initiated by students
• A course that is typically self-paced
Elements of the case pertinent here:
Undergraduate courses and Teacher Licensure courses online marketed under the college’s “Woods External Degree (WED)” program.
Courses offered on a Learning Management System, with assigned instructors, scheduled for a full semester with option for 3-month
• Program descriptions on college website,
materials in catalog (handbook) and brochures.
• Interviews with administrators, instructors
and students.
• Course syllabi picked by auditors from
across the disciplines, sections which had large enrollments.
• Course content online and records of student
and instructor activity on the Learning Management System.
• System had features for participating in
discussion boards, chat rooms, and viewing videos, but these were not required.
• Grading was based upon submission of
assignments and tests, not on any online communication/interaction.
• Instructors graded assignments and returned
them online, were available to answer
questions, and periodically sent messages to students if the students were not submitting assignments.
• Instructors did not deliver lectures or initiate
discussions with students; tutoring and other instructional resources were provided at the student’s discretion.
• Syllabi described the reading and
assignments, and offered suggested
schedules for student completion of the work.
• Syllabi did not describe any mandatory or
regular and substantive interaction between students and instructors.
• Student posts and discussion forums were
student driven; grades were not affected if students did not use the features.
“We concluded the College was not eligible to
participate in [federal financial aid] because 50% or more of its students were enrolled in
correspondence courses… We recommend… require the college to return to the U.S.
Department of Education the $42,362,291 in Title IV funds disbursed…”
• Effective practice is required at the course level:
USDE audits can include examination of syllabi, student and faculty interviews, and usage
patterns on the Learning Management System by faculty and students.
• Courses which largely consist of written work
completed and submitted by students and graded by instructors, and/or completion of tests, will fit the definition of correspondence education rather than distance education.
Correspondence course:
(1) A course provided by an institution under which the
institution provides instructional materials, by mail or electronic transmission, including examinations on the materials, to
students who are separated from the instructor. Interaction
between the instructor and student is limited, is not regular and substantive, and is primarily initiated by the student.
Correspondence courses are typically self-paced.
(2) If a course is part correspondence and part residential training, the Secretary considers the course to be a
correspondence course.
(3) A correspondence course is not distance education.
Classes which are on-site, but which include independent online student work for some portion of the instructional hours, should ensure the online portion of the class has
elements of instruction and teacher-to-student interactivity, so as to avoid having the entire
• Is central in determining whether a course is distance
education rather than correspondence education.
• Is needed in every course that is fully online and in the
online elements of courses otherwise on-site.
• Must be demonstrable and documented.
• Is vital to a college’s relationship with the U.S.
Department of Education for student financial aid eligibility.
• Is key to quality education and the student outcomes
Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College was accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC).
The HLC completed a substantive change review for the college in 2009 and changed the program in question to distance education from correspondence, based upon the college’s plan to transition from correspondence to online delivery by January 2010.
Auditors found this did not absolve the previous activity of the
college. “HLC did not reexamine the program as offered in the past. In addition, HLC’s determination that the WED program was no
longer a correspondence program is not binding on the U.S. Department of Education.”
From Final Audit Report ED-OIG-A05K0012
Institutions are ineligible to offer federal financial
aid if, for the last full year, more than 50% of courses are correspondence education, or more than 50% of regularly enrolled students are
enrolled in correspondence ed. courses. 34 C.F.R. § 600.7.
Institutions must meet the definition of distance
education for their online courses to not have them counted as correspondence ed. 34 C.F.R. § 602.3.
Institutions must verify the identity of students
participating in class or coursework online (authentication). 34 C.F.R. § 602.17.
Institutions must ensure the quality of distance
education or correspondence education, as to student support services, curriculum, faculty,
equipment, and student success. 34 C.F.R. §602.16.
Institutions must establish and maintain records
to document fulfillment of college and program eligibility under Title IV. 34 C.F.R. §668.24.
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